I love Tulsi Gabbard because she’s got all the right positions and quitting the DNC to support Bernie Sanders, for which she got a really nasty e-mail from Clinton and NO DNC funds for her own congressional campaign, was a rare act of political courage. If Liz Warren or Al Franken had taken a stand like that then, they might be in contention for the 2020 nomination, but they didn’t and they aren’t.
But, I must admit, I find Tulsi to be kind of a boring speaker. Not offensive like Trump, not irritating like Nancy Pelosi, just not super dynamic like Bernie Sanders. She’s quiet.
It wouldn’t be a disadvantage in a president. Lots of great managers and executives are less than stellar public speakers, and I would be fine with voting for her if she should get the nomination. It might make it harder for her to get the nomination.
Bernie, on the other hand, keeps setting the crowds on fire. He’s all over social media, commenting on every topic. There is a series of viral videos with him walking with people to the polls to vote. Hundreds of people, marches several blocks long. He made a speech that I saw a couple of days ago, which I thought represented a slight shift in priorities, one of which I heartily approve. Now, Bernie has always been good on the environment. He doesn’t take money from the oil industry, so he can vote against their pipelines. He’s talked about ‘transitioning to a green economy’ but he seems to see it more as a jobs program than anything else. But, in this speech, he referred to it as ‘perhaps the most important issue facing our planet’ and he cited the 12 years report.
This is good. I cannot understand how everybody isn’t just totally going nuts over this. There is scientific consensus, very broad agreement, that unless we drastically change course in the next 12 years, the human race is doomed. Like, within a few generations after that, the Earth will become uninhabitable and all human beings (and cats, and dogs, and elephants) will die.
Thanks to Bernie, medicareforall is now a mainstream position, backed by a large majority of the American people, and a $15 an hour minimum wage may become the de facto situation with or without legislation.
If he’s turning his attention to the environment, he might just save the human race.